instant coffee summer was hot, humid, hectic and fast so much so that we had to take a several months break from it all for example, the pope was in town, traffic jams, the garbage strike, requisite down time at the cottages, swimming pool-side parties, a failed show, a successful show, a short visit to NYC, and the road trip to mexico city all consumed too much energy

in this back to school issue of instant coffee saturday edition we are featuring Nicholas Flood's New York diary, Lindsay Cope's high school grade, Gwen McGregor's week in review, Liz Wylie's piece about Queen Street West Art Galleries and more sorted ic stuff

we'd like to inform you of some instant coffee changes:

instant coffee resident designer Steph has a new beautiful daughter

instant coffee head quarters now boasts a 60 gig external hard drive

instant coffee tech guru has a new fabulous hair style

instant coffee mister got a job at Mercer Union

instant coffee resident reader is now on board of YYZ

A fellow art afficionado reported to me the other day that there are currently fifty-three commercial art galleries on Queen St. W. between Bathurst and Lansdowne. Having recently sprouted like a new kind of wild mushroom along a previously mundane portage route through the woods, these new businesses are a sign of economic and cultural health for the neighbourhood. As well, they are the harbinger (if previous patterns hold true) of a gentrification process for the area in the near future. With a few notable exceptions (SPIN and DeLeon White for two), these galleries are tiny little boites, some more carefully renovated or stylish than others, but most painted white. The majority seem to be displaying works of art that appear to have been shrunk to fit. Produced mostly by Generation “Y” artists – kids to my middle-age – the pieces of art for sale are very often hardly indistinguishable from the cool, often retro, design and décor items offered for sale in the new design-oriented shops interspersed amongst the galleries. In fact, with identifying signage at an apparently fashionable minimum, it can be difficult to differentiate between a store and a gallery as one browses the strip.

So, do I have a problem with this? Does size matter? And what’s wrong with borders blurring between art and design? I have been giving both matters a great deal of thought lately. As I think back to previous generations of young, trend-setting, paradigm-breaking Toronto artists, there does seem to have been a shift with this current Generation “Y” away from values that I think maybe all the previous generations actually shared, no matter what the look or ideology of their product. For example, the Carmen Lamanna / Av Isaacs generation of artists in the 60s were out-there young kids who lived cheaply and delighted in a boho lifestyle, yet produced work in painting, sculpture, printmaking and drawing that was radical, while maintaining an old-fashioned feeling of ambition. One could cast a glance back further as well, for example, to the ground-breaking Painters Eleven, who were the first artists in English Canada to approach abstraction in a big, often gestural way. Even the Group of Seven for heaven’s sake struggled to produce work that was new to Canada and was not immediately marketable. In the 1980s artists who adhered to the positions/enthusiasms of conceptual art, those Queen Street West denizens who can now affectionately be called the Chromazones, as well as the shrubs of Jack Bush (who showed concurrently with the Queen Street generation, only mostly in the uptown Yorkville commercial galleries), even the feminists, if we look back and consider the issue of size or scale - both were there if they were needed, no matter how impractical a large format might have seemed. For so many of these disparate artists, works were made really big if it was important to the statement. Materials were as expensive, relatively, throughout all these decades as now, and storage costs as well, so why this change now to scale things down to such a degree, especially when the Porsche-and-ponytail set are moving into huge lofts that can accommodate gigantic works of art? What has brought it about and what does it mean?

I have been wondering if the current small-scale phenomenon could in fact be unrelated to economics. (After all, economics have always been bad for artists – David Milne quipped in the middle of the Great Depression: artists stand depressions very well. Depressions look so much like their regular brand of prosperity.) Could small scale be a way of hedging one’s bets in some sense, in playing it safe, by keeping it small, and therefore modest, purposefully and self-consciously unambitious in any front-and-centre way?

And could art that can be seen as masquerading as home décor items be a way of embodying irony, that all-important factor to make sure the viewer knows that the artist is in no way taking him or herself too seriously? Could small size and resemblance to a commercial home-décor product combined be seen as something of an admission of defeat of sorts in the face of the huge power and presence of the entertainment industry? It was sent home to us in the final years of the last century and millennium that the activity that most defines oneself now in developed countries is shopping: the retail experience. We are what we buy, or at least yearn for, in stores.

The aspect that disturbs me most about the shrunken, home-décor art, is that it is moving art out of a realm and context and system of referents where it is not even art anymore. Duchamp posited that art was defined by context. A urinal signed by an artist and placed in a gallery or museum was no longer a functional product, it had entered the realm, and taken on the role, of art. Are kids today saying that the reverse can work too: if a gallery looks like a little boutique and art looks like design items for the home, then art becomes product?

Why would this be worrying? Young artists need to engage however they need to engage, it’s true. But are we going to end up with a generation of artists producing work that in its own terms and by its own definition is of no consequence as art? Would this be of any consequence? Perhaps I am generation-bound now, in middle-age, and trapped by the ideas I grew up with. One notion or conviction that I cannot stand to let go of is this: playing it safe in any way does not make for great art, no matter what the particular thrust of the artist and his/her milieu. Not what I call art anyway, the kind that shakes you to your soles and leaves you gasping for breath. Tiny ironic décor-ish items don’t do that for this worried, middle-aged curmudgeon. end

(Liz Wylie is curator at the University of Toronto Art Centre. She sent us her submission early in the summer, but we’re just getting out now)

2. Interview

Rza Davis talks with Timothy Comeau about his Joseph Beuys Petition

RD: Timothy, why did you start the Joseph Beuys at the Ago petition?

TC: Because Joseph Beuys is an interesting artist whose work I want to be able to see more of. I made a painting of that blackboard in art school but I've never been able to see it in person. I went to the AGO in the summer of 97 looking for it and it wasn't there. That was five years ago. As far as I know, it hasn't been displayed during this time. Meanwhile, you have that fucking rotting foam hamburger, kitchen sink and mediocre Andy Warhol hanging around boring me and I'm sure many other people. I asked people I knew who worked there if they could get the Beuys blackboard out of storage but they didn't have any luck. So I started the petition.

RD: What kind of response has it gotten?

TC: Well, it's been a little disappointing. Only got about 65 signatures in two months. Well, no, now that I think of it, that's pretty good. I got some interesting responses. One person just wrote instead of their name "Poor Joseph Beuys (not like any of us undiscovered starving artists without representation at the AGO, my heart bleeds)" which I thought is a good point about that institution's relationship to the city. One girl emailed me to say that she wouldn't sign it because Beuys sucked. Well, you know that's not the point. Maybe he did suck, but the question is, shouldn't we get the chance to decide that for ourselves? I mean, at this point, I know Claes Oldenburg sucks. When I first started this and was spreading the word, a lot of discussion was generated on just how much stuff they have in storage that we never get to see, and it could get a little passionate. It's a can of worms. Or, if you prefer another metaphor to that tired one, "you know you shouldn't touch toads cuz they give you warts". I heard that in a French movie that was set in my old hometown during the 19th Century.

RD: That's an old wive's tale and the source of your quote is irrelevant to Beuys.

TC: I know, but when you think about it, maybe not - we know today that toads don't give you warts, but it's still funny to hear and it reflects what people thought 150 years ago. And in some ways, I think that's what Beuys was about, making work that was sometimes humorous, indulging it with this mythical bullshit that had roots in the past, and reminding us that art should not be seen as separate from life. Every time you make dinner you're creating something, and every time you write a grocery list you're drawing. This past summer I got into a conversation with a couple of the Catholic kids and after learning that I was an artist asked me to draw for them. So I did, and because I was put on the spot it was a really bad drawing. So I apologized, and they say, " Oh, it's really good, I can't draw at all". The correct answer for that, although it always escapes me in the awkwardness of the occasion, is "if you can write you can draw, since learning the alphabet is a matter of learning to draw shapes." I found an old notebook from Grade 1 a couple of years ago I used while learning the alphabet and I could see that I was struggling with it. Now it's unconscious. Anyone can do it if they want to take the time.

RD: I'm not sure I agree with you that Beuys is relevant in uniting art and life, since, as you say, his work was infused with "mythical bullshit". That type of thing seems to emphasize artificial hierarchical divisions.

TC: That's true, but that's what his work means to *me*. I like the fact that this blackboard is essentially his lecture notes. I watched the video of the lecture he gave when he drew it while I was in art school, and that's what impressed me. If his lecture notes can be considered a drawing, and fund a scholarship, why weren't all the other lecture notes I'd seen scrawled across the blackboards of gradeschool and university given the same aesthetic status? I really took to that idea of markmaking. I started to look into his drawing more, and I like his drawings precisely because they're so bad: I've tried and it's impossible to draw as badly as that. (Even my drawing for the Catholic still retained some skill). In all of this, there's an attraction, I guess because of his celebrity, because of his notoriety, and the point of the petition is that the public in Toronto deserves to experience that, and be given the opportunity to let his work mean something to *them*, instead of a contemplating a sink in a canvas, or seeing in person an Andy Warhol they've already seen a million times on tv.

RD: I heard that one person thought your write up stank and so even though they agreed with you, they couldn't put their name to it.

TC: Yeah, I did write it in haste, and had to bite my tongue about the resentment I feel for their boring shows (except the David Hoffos one this summer was pretty good). I tried to flatter them instead. It's an awkward write up, I agree, but I'd like to thank you Rza, for giving me the opportunity to better explain myself.

RD: Why, you're welcome. So where should people go to sign this if they agree with you?

Performers from Central Europe thank politicians and the leading world curators for ignoring and perfect isolation.
(Ewa Rybska & Wladyslaw Kazmierczak, Poland)

Documenta 11, from the performance artist's point of view, is an ingenious exhibition. Many postulates, that performance art had already suggested 30 years ago has been realized during this exhibition. The division into the art disciplines has been taken down. The art has been released from the pressure of art market and aesthetical rules. Art critics do not have to interpret the works of art. They are comprehensible for everyone. Exhibition presents the art, that in fact is not accepted by the art world. Because this art seriously tells about the tragedies of this world. Documenta 11 for the first time is not a place for refined games of artistic establishment, that always during this kind of exhibition has the opportunity to fix seasonal trends and position of romantic artists - geniuses in rankings. Documenta 11 warns, that it is not time for art, whose value lies in modernistic background or Dadaists' perfidy, irony, joke, displaying the sense of humor or eccentric imagination. The time for this kind of art had already passed. The art should disinterestedly serve people, not to authorities or to art market. In this exhibition it is proven, that we could overcome Europocentrism and Americocentrism. It says, that the world is bigger and more complicated than axis G8. That openness - still impossible to realize - is the only alternative for today and for the future. Documenta 11 again reminds us about the Western cultural domination, which cannot be acceptable today. Looking at the exhibition we still do not know, whether theintroduction of not-known artists into the world art scene is only a temporary whim of a West Man, or is it just testing the art system, a political reaction to the attacks of antiglobalists or a deep, humanistic process (or only a gesture). The Western culture having the fantastic ability to assimilate and proclaim ideas of openness is in fact a hermetic structure forcing it's own rules, which we will not be able to understand. E.g. we will not be able to understand any reasons of ignoring and isolating Central European culture, more than other cultures. Also, we will not be able to explain logically the marginalization of performance art in Western culture. The art, which was paradoxically born in NYC. Staying out of the art world somehow "double" we are more conscious of the indications of hypocrisy of Western culture and other patterns of globalized civilization. And we thank you very much for this possibility.

ewa_rybska@poczta.onet.pl
wladyslaw_kazmierczak@onet.pl
http://www.kazmierczak.artist.pl
http://www.bgsw.republika.pl
http://www.castle-of-imagination.republika.pl
http://www.hysterics.art.pl

(we’re not really sure what they are going on about. We think it might be intended as irony. It was sent to us by Michelle Kasprzak, a dear friend of Instant Coffee)

2. Nicholas Flood's New York Gossip

Ok...so here i am in New York City. I am keeping a diary to document my time here. I love reading other people's diaries, don't you? N.Y.C. has proved to be every thing i expected-seductive and simultaneously appalling. Don't be shy...take a look at the city through my blurry eyes.

P.S. i am writing this on simple text and i don't have spell check and i only have a grade 10 literacy level so deal with it..OK!!!!

Day 1
Internet boyfriend picked me up at Laguardia airport. We dress up all disco and go to SPECTRUM (that's where they shot Saturday Night Fever) The club reminded me of a cruise ship lounge. Soo tacky...i loved every moment

Day 2
After having sex with internet boyfriend i have realized we have no chemistry whatsoever. I also have realized that i don't trust people that are completely silent during sex

Day 3
Just moved into Brooklyn sublet. I think i have contracted some spooky lung infection. Never move to NYC during august. The air is melting and i can't breathe very well.

Day 7
I do have a spooky lung infection. I went to the emergency room today after a week of fever and tremors. I waited for 5 hours and after some serious registration fraud (fuck ....I forgot to get health insurance) I am finally told i have a lung infection...they give me some antibiotics

Day 9
I just saw Matt Damon and Ben Affleck In the lower east village at a gay dive bar...I swear to god its true!!!

Day 10
I just had dinner at b-bar and Alexander McQueen (Lee McQueen is his real name) does coke in the washroom stall. Wow, he is super thin...nothing like coke and liposuction to keep the body trim

Day 11
I hung out at The cock (seedy Sneaker-esuqe rock bar) and asked Amanda Lapoure (legendary transexual) to be in one of my videos. She said she would for $250.00. Somebody gave me a valium. Pills are all the rage in NYC.

Day 12
I have a major headache. I hate my sublet...i have to take care of two bratty cats

Day 14
I went to The cock again last night... I think I am in love...I met this boy Seth...he is *beyond*...we stayed up late in sexy discourse about the current state of video art. I love the new york accent...yummy...he's irish and has red hair...except its bleached right now.

Day 15
My new favorite fag slang is fucked down it means past fucked up...as in "Bitch...you need to go home..you are fucked down."

more to come...

3. Lyndsey Cope’s HIGH SCHOOL GRADES

This is my report card from grade 11 to OAC
G - is for a general course
A - is for a advanced course
3 - stands for a grade 11 class
4 - stands for a grade 12 class
0 - stands for a OAC class

English (ENG3GO), 2000 ---73---
Photography (TGH3AG), 2000---75---
Art History (TGH3AH), 2000 ---77---
Life Drawing (TGH3AB), 2000---74---
Commutation Art (TGH3AC), 2000---78---
Illustration (TGH3AL), 2000---76---
Painting (TGH3AP), 2000---72---
English Media (EMD4GO), 2000---92---
Geography (GRE4GO), 2000---73---
Law (HLW4AO), 2001---63---
English (ENG4AO), 2001---66---
Art History (TGH4AH), 2001---76---
Illustration (TGH4AL), 2001---52---
Printmaking (TGH4AN), 2001---80---
Video (TGH4AV), 2001---55---
Sculpture (TGH4AS), 2001---80---
English (ENG0AO), 2002---67---
World Issues (GWI0AO), 2002---70---
Economics (HXE0AO), 2002---65---
Math (MAT3AO), 2002---43---
Environment & Economy (GCE0AO), 2002---70---
History North American (HCN0AO), 2002---72---
Law (HLW0AO), 2002---70---
Math (MAT4GO), 2002---61---

selected links
1. http://www.mmparis.com/theportal.html
something interesting.

2. http://www.usdept-arttech.net/
The Media Deconstruction Kit and the US Department of Art & Technology: fiction and fantasy

The Media Deconstruction Kit confronts corporate control of mass media by allowing online viewers to remix and manipulate TV news broadcasts. At least that's what it promises to do -- right now it's just a prototype, the brainchild of 'The US Department of Art & Technology,' a faux-governmental entity developed by artist Randall Packer. The prototype itself is pretty arty, with a mashed-up newsreel soundtrack and visually distorted news images that expose a more elusive type of media distortion. - Curt Cloninger

The US Department of Art & Technology is a virtual, artist-led government agency with a real message. The Department proposes and supports the idealized definition of the role of the artist in society as one whose reflections, ideas, aesthetics, sensibilities, and abilities can have significant and transformative impact on the “world stage.” The US Department of Art and Technology functions as a conduit between the arts and the broader political and economic culture for facilitating the artists’ need to extend aesthetic inquiry into the social sphere where ideas become real action. The Department also supports artistic and cultural efforts internationally that provide greater understanding of the impact of new media technologies in an increasingly technology and global society.www.zakros.com/usdat/usdat.html
(original sent to us by atsyber-info@eListas.net)

3. http://www.impakt.nl
IMPAKT ONLINE
We've launched Impakt Online. Impakt Online is a new section of the Impakt website. In this section we will be presenting projects which use the internet's special characteristics i.e. projects which exist thanks to the interactive, non-hierarchical complexity of the internet environment, and only really come into their own in this online space.

4. http://www.pochanostra.com
"Ethno-Techno Art for the New Millennium". According to unknown Tijuana art critic, "It's a bizarre hybrid of techno-performance, border rave art,arte conceptual chicano, humour and theory, that will blow your pinche minds."

Created by a decentered team of cyber-designers from California, Mexico City, Dartmouth and Barcelona,under the artistic direction of Guillermo Gómez-Peña and Kari Hensley

5. http://acg.media.mit.edu/
The Aesthetics of Computation Group at MIT are part of their Media Lab and are involved in researching new ways of making computers accessible. That's the easy description, but I hesitate to describe it that way since it's limiting and doesn't do justice to what they're doing. Long story short: they're doing the stuff I wish I was seeing in art galleries, from their innovative solutions of presenting information, to the applicability of their work to the larger culture as a whole. Check out the theses of the individuals involved (all downloadable in PDF format). If you have patience, download their Concept videos and enjoy.

submitted links
1. http://ourworld.compuserve.com/homepages/Mark_Ayres/DWTheme.htm
uncommented.

Ingredients:

3 cups white sugar
4 cups water
1/4 cup instant coffee granules
1 (750 milliliter) bottle vodka
1 vanilla bean

Directions:

1  In a saucepan, combine sugar, water and instant coffee. Bring to a boil, then let simmer gently for 1 hour. Remove from heat, and cool completely.
2  When mixture is cool, Stir in vodka. Place vanilla bean in bottle and fill with coffee/vodka mixture. Allow liqueur to set for 4 to 6 weeks after preparation.

I got up at the time that I usually go to bed and took the TTC with people who were all dressed in their Sears best. I arrived at the grounds at 7am and walk into the crowd. It rains. Umbrellas go up. The boys choir begins to sing, and I shiver hearing Vivaldi's "Gloria" which of course reminds me of the intro to the Frontline Pope documentary that was one of the reasons I wanted to see him in person. They also sang Handel's Hallelujah, and this was entertaining while we waited. Then Elvis entered the building.

The Pope's helicopter flew over the crowd and people got excited. The Pope is like a Santa Claus who dresses in white and doesn't have a beard. I guess this was the adult version of the Santa Clause parade. People were yelling, "close the umbrellas so we can see!" Enough people did this, so that I caught a good glimpse of him. When he drove by I saw him from his bad side (cause with his illness he leans to one side, so I saw him from the side he leans away from) so I didn't really see his face, but it was more than a little awe inspiring. I got caught up in the moment, with people yelling; "wave!" and I waved. The excitement was intense. I was awed and joy filled to see him, which felt a little embarrassing, but then again, that's why I was there, to see in person this man who I feel has had a influence on my life.

I had faith that the rain would stop for the Mass, and it did. Throughout, I would follow those who were trying to get closer. For the most part the Pope was a green dot on the stage, and I watched the screens, but by the end I did get close enough to see the white of his hair. People were busy chatting and looking for lost members of their group and taking photographs, so it had this odd mix of solemnity and rock concert. With all the mud I thought of Woodstock, and one of the papers had described it as Popestock earlier in the week, and that seemed really appropriate that day. I felt bad when I had to squeeze past a couple of girl's who praying during the benediction of the host, and I realized that I interrupted them in their moment. The Australians were on their knees at that point, which reminded me of the passage in the Bible where Jesus says, dont pray in public because then you're just showing off and not honoring God, rendering the act sacrilege.

Rating: 8 out of ten

2. the best and cheapest, clearly legal options for getting your hands on commercial-free music. (MSN propaganda)
Internet radio
Satellite delivery
Traditional shrink-wrapped CDs
One-time downloads
Subscriptions for downloads and burning your own CDs

3. My week of lists (and what a banal one it was)
by Gwen MacGregor

SATURDAY Sept 7 Things to buy for dinner with Martin, Kim, Carolyn and Lewis
squid
chicken
yogurt
berries
swiss chard
spices
olives
chocolates
eggs
red and white wine

SUNDAY Sept 8 Reasons I shouldn't drink
-I have a shocking hangover after only 3 glasses of wine
-I couldn't get up until 1 pm
-I wasted the afternoon watching crap TV
-All I can stand to eat is comfort food like noodles and cheese

MONDAY Sept 9 The list the auditor sent me to finish accounts for one of my day jobs
(I don't expect anyone to actually read this).
!. When you posted our adjusting entries for the year ended March 31, 2001, did you use the date as March 31, 2001?
2. Do you always keep a payroll bank account? If yes, can have the monthly bank statement of March 2002?
3. I try to reconcile the GIC balance but I don't have any statements related to it. Please search your file.
4. Would you please forward all the federal and Ontario income tax assessments and their statements of accounts in order for me to reconcile the instalments made during and for the year 2001?
5. The Corporate Taxes Federal has a debit balance and the Corporate Taxes Provincial has a debit. I need their up-to-dated statements of accounts to reconcile both instalments up to today.
6. Did you use outside professional payroll services? Could I have the full monthly records and calculations either prepared by you or the outsider services? In addition, I also need the 2001 T4 summary.
7. Would you please double check again whether the balances of accounts receivable and accounts payable at March 31, 2002 are all inclusive?
8. Please take my suggestion to change your filing according to either the suppliers' names or cheque #. Or it is quite difficult for me to trace any particular the payment and its supporting invoice.
(Felt like I still had a hangover after reading this list)

TUESDAY Sept 10 List of graphics that need to be done for the National News at CBC
US/Iraq
Tony Blair
Martha Stewart
Orange Alert
Netanyahu
Nfld Oil Slick
September Smog
Canada Security
Maps- Nfld Oil Slick, France Floods

WEDNESDAY Sept 11 New York Friends I emailed today to let them know I was thinking of them
Lisa
Janine
Paul
Paolo
Jude
Doug

THURSDAY Sept 12 People I had conversations with at the Mercer Union opening
(in no particular order)
Natalie
Jay
Janet
Monica
Eric
Kim
Kate
Mark
David
Elizabeth

People I said Hi to
Stan
Karma
John
Xandra
Steven
Janice
Jennifer
Nester
Sam
Wendy
Dionne

FRIDAY Sept 13 What I had to do today
-Take in drycleaning
- phone Badanna to arrange to get slides from her
- go to yoga
- do deposits and pay bills for one of my day jobs
- email my boss in Amersterdam to reassure him everything is OK
- buy videotapes for Harbourtfront video, TAC Grant and Sara Milroy
- deposit my pay cheque (most important from the look of bank balance)
- confirm canoes for trip
- work 8 hours at CBC
- phone Lewis and confirm that we're going to get together after Oakville opening
(since I can't go because I couldn't get out of working at CBC and I haven't talked to him since yesterday)

SATURDAY Sept 14 Reasons for going to Buffalo today
- to see Karen Henderson's new installation at Hallwalls (yeah!)
- hang out with Karen, Corrine, Marla, Martin, Michael, Paulette, David,
- eat chicken wings
- get out of Toronto for 24 hours

Banality is not unimportant - Gerhart Richter

4. Letter to Timothy
Ed Deary

Sometimes when I read Instant Coffee I think about how much of a "affliction" living in a small town in the middle of nowhere is. So here is a short list of events:

This weekend:
Star Belly Jam, a music festival featuring "hippie" bands.
Free camping, the all-day ticket price is 20$ a day.
(note- I don't think the bands are the reason to attend this: the lackey crowd, laced up should provide anybody with a reason to go. This is the equivalent to a trade show on drugs. I won't go, but I look forward to the inevitable stories that will flow out. Really, some of the things that I have heard have been quiet re-tellable).

So much should have been written down. My memory is not what it should be, and I am so afraid my weakness will keep me away from what I want.

What are you doing now? Are you working out of the house and with your "instant coffee"? Do you still fight with your sister?

I have to leave this place, move in with my mother in North Vancouver, and put my stuff in storage. You did this, how was it?

Sometimes I think that I should get more student loan money and go to UBC's English department. Other times I think that I should keep going with what I'm doing, (the relentless studio practice).

At the Khyber, your stairway show blurred the separation between studio practice and the contemplative act. Sometimes I think of that show, the way you were able to weave idea and thing together. Sara's art of cooking pulled me so far from school. Now I'm sewing trousers. Happy to run away from the institutions, learn to cook, and name it badly with the feminist quip; the private is political. God, some days I actually believed that I was doing art- staying home making myself dinner. Black on Black paintings have the same effect as picking one's nose. So what the f--k, I want to leave the house now - engage with this public society. I live alone and plan to move home. Maybe that's o.k?

5. new word
XOLOITZCUINTLI: a hairless breed of dog, indigenous to Mexico. The breed traces back to the Aztecs, who had adored the dogs more as a culinary delight than a pet.
(:ic: wants one for a pet).